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LA HABRA – Teachers in the La Habra City School District returned to the picket lines on Monday after a weekend of negotiations failed to yield a settlement to end their strike.

It was the fourth day of the strike led by the La Habra Education Association, which represents the district’s 225 teachers. Superintendent Susan Belenardo said shortly after noon that “many sticking points” remain in the negotiations between the two sides.

“The financial experts appointed by the district and the teachers’ union worked through the weekend to try to bring forward a solution, and have not been able to do so at this time” Belenardo said in a prepared statement. “Ongoing discussions will continue.”

The district has brought in substitute teachers to fill in during the strike, at a cost of $250 each per day.

The teachers’ union claimed in an email late Sunday that the district had refused to move forward on a possible settlement plan. But Belenardo disputed that: “There was never a settlement offer,” she said. “There was never any kind of recommendation from the experts.”

She and other district officials met behind closed doors on Monday with their financial experts to get an update on the budget situation. Those experts worked through the weekend with experts appointed by the La Habra Education Association to seek common ground on which to resume negotiations.

Belenardo said late Sunday that there were “some new avenues of communication.”

If an agreement is reached, teachers could be back in the classroom with little advance notice, said Danette Brown, president of the La Habra Education Association.

"If we get a tentative settlement, we will call off the strike but that is a big 'if'," Brown said. "We don't want to be out of our classrooms one day longer than we have to."

After months of failed contract negotiations, the school board voted Nov. 18 to impose cuts on the teachers.

Those reductions included a 2 percent salary cut retroactive from Nov. 1, two non-paid furlough days in the 2010-11 school year and two additional days in 2011-12. Teachers will also be required to pay more for some health benefits beginning July 1. The cuts were through 2011-12 school year.

Teachers say they are willing to take cuts, but contend that the district has ignored a neutral fact-finder's recommendation that language restoring the cutbacks ought to be in place, should the district's financial situation improve.

The district is willing to add "restorative language" to the teachers' contract, but the financial starting point at which reductions would be reversed has been a key point of disagreement, Belenardo said.

"We really do care about these teachers," the superintendant said. "But we have lost 15 percent of our funding and sacrifices have to be made."

Student attendance has dipped every day during the strike and was 62 percent of normal Friday.

Striking Walnut Elementary teachers walk a picket line Monday, beginning the fourth day of their walk out. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Students held out of school by their parents join the picket line at Las Lomas School, showing their signs of support to traffic passing the school on Euclid Street. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Early Monday morning the teachers from Walnut Elementary were on strike, marching on the sidewalk in front of the school after negotiations stalled over the weekend. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The strike involving teachers in the La Habra City School District entered its fourth day while bargaining teams representing the teachers' union and the district are waiting to resume negotiations. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Walnut Elementary teachers chant strike slogans as they march in front of their school. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Monday morning teachers walk a picket line in front of Walnut Elementary School. School buses dropped off students on the fourth day of the La Habra City School District teachers strike. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Students on a passing school bus watch teachers picket in front of Walnut Elementary School in La Habra Wednesday morning. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Parent Jessica Montes and her sons, Cruz, 8, and Chace, 10, join the picket line between Las Positas School and Imperial Middle School in La Habra. Montes, second from left, says her family is a union family and she has kept her 8 and 10-year-old sons out of school until the strike is over. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A striking teacher from the La Habra City School District encourages passing drivers to honk at a morning rally at the intersection of Whittier and Harbor boulevards. About 40 teachers left the picket lines at their respective schools to gather a at the intersection during the third day of the strike. A similar rally was held at Idaho Street and Imperial Highway.
Teachers picket in front of Walnut Elementary School in La Habra Wednesday morning. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
First grade teacher Patsy Okino, left, and her fellow teachers picket outside Arbolita Elementray School on the third day of the La Habra City School District teachers strike. They were chanting "Teachers on strike!" BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
La Habra City School District teaches walked picket lines in front of Washington Middle School and the district's eight other schools Wednesday. The district's 225 teachers opted to strike after months of failed contract negotiations. Several issues have divided the two sides, including the language of recently imposed contract terms, which the teachers say is unfair because implemented cuts are permanent. LOU PONSI, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Teachers in the La Habra City School District flashed picket signs Thursday morning as busses dropped off students at Sierra Vista Elementary School on Whittier Boulevard. The district's 225 teachers are in day-two of a strike that began after a last-minute meeting between district officals and the teachers' union Tuesday night failed to bring a settlement.

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